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DS Wrapup!

We step away from our keyboards for just a few days and all of Demand Studios collapses.

Here’s just a quick roundup of some of the tidbits that have been filtering in. Sorry they’re a little late.

I’ll write up some of my thoughts on the whole situation as soon as I have a chance to ruminate on the whole Demand situation…

DSSer Schlomo

About an hour ago Demand shut down its titling department, after announcing that they would be turning all their attention to an eHow “renovation.” I’ve avoided sharing things with Demand Studios Sucks in the past, but after six years with Demand and getting the shaftiest shaft today, I thought I’d give you a heads up about the titling situation.

DSSer LB

I have to vent: It makes me want to puke to see how so many editors and writers kiss Jordan and the rest of the DS hierarchies A$$! These idiots are actually THANKING DS for overhauling eHow and talking about how GRATEFUL they are to be informed of the changes. “I’m sooo excited” one idiot wrote.

PaaLEASE! For Any DS’ers making the comments please know that it will NOT save your flow of income. They will not take you under their wing and give you work where there is none. They are not being truthful or forthcoming about the true nature of this downgrade or whatever the hell it is. They are laughing at you for your brown nosing ways. So please shut the he!! up because you are turning my stomach!

DSSlave

You’ve probably seen this from someone else, but JIC you haven’t, this was posted in the DS forum on 3/4. I’m so glad I don’t depend on DS for anything besides fun money (and even that’s been spotty of-late, with their slow processing times and pay “glitches”.)

Editorial Update & eHow Renovation
posted at 3/4/2014 12:09 PM PST

*Studio Staff*
Jordan
Posts: 2542
First: 2/23/2011
Last: 3/4/2014

Below is a message from our VP of Editorial, Martha E. Flores.

————-

Hello everyone,

Over the next few weeks, we will shift our editorial focus to launch a complete renovation of our flagship site eHow. This will affect assignment availability for a period of time as we prepare. You can read more about this and eHow’s plans here.

We are very excited about our renewed focus on eHow, especially as it will allow us to offer lots of new assignments not only in the How To format, but also in engaging new formats. We hope you will enjoy working on some of these.

We expect the eHow assignments to start to become available over the next 1-2 months. The team is hard at work, but there’s lots of prep work to do. In the meantime, you’ll notice fluctuations in your available assignment queues. Some segments may dip to zero. Others may have sporadic new assignments. And still others will remain more consistent. Any segments or roles that will experience significant changes will be notified.

We hope you can keep busy during this time. And as always, be on the lookout for additional emails and communication as we’ll continue to update.

Best,

Martha E. Flores
VP, Editorial
Demand Media Studios

DSSer BS

Now that Demand has failed (well financially, anyway) at spamming the Internet with their Eve Ledermen-Richard Lally “edited” crap, they’ve decided to literally go into the spam business. We don’t know just how yet, but they are somehow involved with OpenMail www.openmail.co.

Yep, Demand is going to help “make email relevant,” also known as “getting advertisers’ crap into peoples’ inboxes.” Because all of the ungrateful Mohammeds won’t come to Demand’s mountain (of crap), they are moving their mountain into our inboxes.

It would be awesome if some of you applied and got the jobs they’re advertising, got inside the company, got some senior people drunk, then came back here and gave us all the inside dirt on Demand from the past five years.

DSSER BM

When they accepted me a a freelance writer in 2010, CE’s were smart, complementary and encouraging. I developed a rep and was making 3 and 4 hun a week, and had a few 5 hun weeks. Then, in late 2012, they brought in the “Goose Step Regime” for whatever reason. Writers and CE’s jumped ship like there was no tomorrow and the new crop of CE’s were a by-the-book-as-long-as-it-suits-the-agenda joke. Paid twice a week? Yeah, if you can get your articles reviewed. Last time I wrote for em, I had 10 pieces sit there ready for review for two weeks. “You’ll get paid eventually” got really old. DMS SUCKS!! And you can tell em I said so.

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10 comments to DS Wrapup!

I’ve working in the publishing world for too long not to know the differences between all the types of copy editors. Truly sad that you don’t know yourself. You must be a DS CE. Maybe the following list will help you.

Editors-in-chief
Sometimes called “editors at large” or just “editors,” these people are responsible for creating and maintaining the voice and standards of a publication. Often at the highest editorial level, they manage not only the look and tone of the final product (with other departments as necessary), but other editors, writers, and freelancers as well.

Acquisitions editor
This title is usually only found in book publishing, but similar tasks are performed by associate and section editors at newspapers and magazines. These editors search for new writers, stories, and/or manuscripts, and decide whether submissions and pitches have a chance at the editing pile or end up in the trash.

Developmental/substantive editor
Found most commonly in educational and book publishing, developmental editors guide a writer from the inception of an idea to the finished product. In many cases, they come up with the concepts and assign them to writers. It’s the developmental editor’s job to look at the “big picture” of the work rather than the fine details.
Sometimes, developmental editors are also substantive editors, who also make large changes, but tend to work on finished drafts. At this level, problems in structure, coherence, and consistency are addressed. If editing fiction, the substantive editor examines plot flow, themes, and character development. With non-fiction, substantive editors look at section flow, facts presented, and the strength of messages/arguments.

Copy editor
Copy editors are primarily concerned with the nuts and bolts of a piece: grammar, word choice, punctuation, and spelling. They also ensure that each piece adheres to the style guidelines set by the commissioning publisher/client. Some copy editors may also be required to proofread, check facts, and write titles or headlines.

Online editor
People in this position are usually a mix of all of above editors with specialized knowledge in web copy. In addition to assigning and editing a story, online editors also format the copy, look for relevant links to include in the text, source artwork to accompany the story, and publish it to their website.

The CE’s at DS are horrible! One of the main issues with DS is they don’t respect the writers. I’ll admit some of the writers are inexperienced etc., but there are also some, like myself, who ARE experienced, have degrees, and books and REAL articles under our belts. We have had to slum it at DS to fill in the financial gaps. Nevertheless, the CE’s are treated like GODS over there and they SUCK. Editors, edit and writers write. If editors could write, I suppose they would. In the real writing world, copy editors merely proofread.

DEFINITION: “Copy editing (also copy-editing, copyediting) is the work that an editor does to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text. Unlike general editing, copy editing might not involve changing the substance of the text.”

Despite this, CE’s at DS routinely change the substance of an article. That’s why DS is the JOKE of the publishing world.

Back when DMS had 15,000 writers, 14,500 were non-pros who drove the Help Desk crazy every time a competent CE changed a comma. Ledermen and Lally developed a real disdain for writers (who were driving away hard-to-train-and-replace CEs), so they implemented the HD rule that CEs were always right, and if not, who cares if you lost a few good writers? Problem is, once the they (supposedly) got rid of the bad writers in 2012, Eve and Richard kept the mentality that writers were unemployed whiners who needed to be slapped down. That mentality drove away the few remaining decent writers, and we still have the CEs-are-Gods mentality over there that drives down production numbers and quality. Colo needs to clean house or be fired by the shareholders for not making serious changes on the editorial side after six years.

Is there a new batch of CE’s? Trained to reject articles for failing to cite every sentence – such as “oranges are citrus fruits.”? Then they reject the rewrite because of failure to cite that beef is a source of protein. So you lose your lousy $30. Meanwhile they probably use all your research for their own illiterate articles.

Ol’ Martha gave my sections less than 24 hours’ notice that all assignments were going to be pulled, and that it would be “at least 2 – 3 weeks” before any assignments in my sections came back. This message was promptly followed by “…or maybe longer,” style wording.

OMG! Is Demand Studios run by monkeys? These people have GOT to be about 22 years old, with absolutely no life or work experience. I seriously have NEVER seen any company run so poorly – and I’ve worked in Texas roadhouses!

Investors and stakeholders should be made aware of the sheer incompetence of this ass-clown bunch in Cali. They just derp their way through every day – lying and acting like they are the shiznit. I hope the damn thing fails fast and hard. Jordon can suck it.

Yes, the Santa Monica office is populated primarily with millennials, with the females hired consisting of mostly tight little beach bunnies. If you look at the employee avatars and video clips, it’s clear what Rosenblatt’s goal was – to create a FB-Lite office.

How do children with no work experience (much less no management experience) like Jordan Decker and Joe Crosby rise to such levels of authority? Crosby, who’s “career” primarily consists of working for…Demand Media Studios…just announced, “I’ll still be involved with the day-to-day management of the Studio overall.” THAT’S what running this company. Shareholders wonder why the stock hit an all-time low yesterday. Hey Eve Ledermen, how are those 10,000 shares of $28 stock looking now – oh, they’re not!